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An energy healer is someone who brings positive energies to those individuals who need help to re-balance their own energies or release the negative energies within them. Often, people that seek the help of an energy healer are struggling with grief, addiction, stress, depression or other mental health problems. They can feel like they are being consumed with negative energy and that they cannot find positivity on their own. An energy healer will help them to re-balance their energies and go forward, tackling their issues head on with renewed strength and love.

Energy healing can help anyone. It isn’t just about targeting specific issues. Here are just five ways consulting an energy healer in NYC could help you.

Stress Management

Stress is a huge problem in modern society. We’re all busy, always rushing, constantly on our phones, in demand and feeling like we’re not quite good enough. An abundance of negative energy can make it easy to get trapped in a cycle of stress. Going backward and forward stressing about different problems, never quite reaching any resolutions or feeling at peace. An energy healer could help you find ways to manage your stress through positivity, instead of getting sucked into negative thought processes.

Healthier Relationships

Building and maintaining positive relationships can be tough. Our relationships are influenced by how we interpret each other’s words and actions. Which is often prejudiced by how we feel about ourselves and the events and relationships of our past. Letting go of these negative energies can make it much easier to enjoy and appreciate our current and future relationships.

Productivity

One reason people struggle with productivity is a lack of self-confidence and self-belief. If we think we can’t do something, or that we’re not good enough or fast enough, this negativity holds us back. We procrastinate out of a fear of failure, we don’t give it our all and we struggle with our creative flow. An energy healer can help you to put all these negative feelings behind you. Instead, you will be able to think positively about your own abilities, focusing on what you are good at and seeking ways to improve where you aren’t as good. Progressing without fear will help you to become more productive and creative in your work.

Happiness

Ultimately, we’re all striving for happiness in all walks of life. But, many of us are stopping ourselves from achieving it by looking for the negatives in all situations. Energy healing can help you to cut out this habit and instead look for happiness and love in whatever you do.

Spiritual Growth

Clearing your mind and soul of negativity can help you to embrace your own spirituality. No longer held back by negative forces you could become a much calmer, more spiritual person, in tune with nature, your body and whatever power you believe in.

Put simply, energy healing uses positive energies to break through any internal barriers in the way of your happiness. Doing this allows your body to heal itself and your mind to grow. If you’ve never tried energy healing, why not give it a go?

In my own experience, and in the experience of many meditators who have been culturing a daily meditation practice over time, the ongoing result has been a steadily growing expansion of awareness and appreciation for all of life. This takes the form of improved relationships with those around me, connection with the entire human race and seeing the divine intelligence in the simplest life forms.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include experiencing an overwhelming sense of love for everyone and everything I encounter. As one friend and former college classmate of mine said, “I was stopped in commuter traffic on the 405 freeway in L.A. I looked around me at the thousands of cars and people and was feeling an unbounded love for all of them!”

If this is the outcome of consistent meditation, then it certainly is worth trying for anyone whose long-ago trauma-related or trauma-triggered emotions frequently get the better of them. For those who simply cannot see their way out of their own personal darkness, meditation is even more important. I encourage you to make the commitment.

8 Steps to Help You Develop Your Daily Meditation Practice for Trauma Healing

* Give yourself permission to get better, understanding that meditation can provide healing and relief.

* Seek out a meditation teacher. Meditation is like walking in an unfamiliar forest. It is best to have a guide.

* Commit to regularity. Research shows that 20 minutes twice a day is optimal.

* Create a space that is just for you to meditate each day. Unplug the phone(s) and put your silenced cell phone where you cannot see it. No cheating!

* Get your mediation checked regularly by your teacher. This is very important.

* If you absolutely have to miss a session, do not be hard on yourself – it is OK to renegotiate with yourself, recommit and pick up where you left off.

* Wait two months, and then check in on your memories of pain and trauma…do you feel better able to just let them go, to allow them to NOT MATTER anymore?

* Congratulate yourself for staying with it! You’re on your way to true healing.

*Disclaimer: Please remember that meditation is not a substitute for professional care or psychiatric help if that is what is needed. Many physicians and psychologists recommend meditation in conjunction with standard therapies.

– Tom North is the author of True North – The Shocking Truth About “Yours, Mine and Ours” They appeared to be the blissful Beardsleys, the happily blended family-eight of Helen North’s, ten of Frank Beardsley’s, and two children from their union. A family so famous in America that Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda played the parents in the box office smash–Yours Mine and Ours. But they were anything from blissful; in fact they were the beaten and battered Beardsleys. That’s the real hidden story behind the spotlight. And Tom North, Helen’s second eldest son, is now revealing how he survived the ordeal of living with a horrifyingly abusive stepfather that drove him to depression and drugs, and deprived him of his self-worth-and a mother who protected the image of the “perfect” family at all costs. But True North is much more than an inspiring and powerful account of a man who rose to success against all odds. It’s a story of how Transcendental Meditation (TM) brought peace to Tom North and saved his life. It brings to light how effective meditation is as a means for healing trauma survivors and especially those who have endured any form of verbal, physical or sexual abuse. For more information, go to truenorthbytomnorth.com/

By Tom North, author of True North: The Shocking Truth About “Yours, Mine and Ours”

Meditation saved my life.

My father, Richard North, died in a Navy jet test flight crash when I was six years old. Fifteen months after his death, my mother, Helen North who had eight children, re-married a man named Frank Beardsley who had ten, making us one of the largest families in the country. We became famous, and our story was featured in the movie, Yours, Mine and Ours. But it wasn’t one big happy family. We had to hide the fact that we were living a lie.

My stepfather was abusive on every level; physically, emotionally and sexually. His constant rage, disapproval and controlling personality left deep emotional scars. And, to make matters worse, our family hid this from the outside world, so we each suffered in silence. The toll I paid was enormous. Lacking any sense of self-worth, it drove me to depression and drugs. I imagine many people will identify with the feelings, even if their home life was not as extreme as mine. But trauma is trauma–whether suffered in a living room or the theatre of war.

As a young adult I discovered meditation. It was my passage out of a deep depression and emotional despair, and I’m here to recommend it as a powerful and effective solution if you cannot get out of the mental patterns that keep you stuck, feeling a victim of past trauma.

Meditation was and still is a vital therapy for my continued survival and healing from a life of child abuse and domestic violence. I still practice it every day, having begun more than 38 years ago.

Meditation is indeed a powerful tool for health and healing on all levels. Research shows that group meditation can produce a radiating influence of peace in society. Recently, Dr. Deepak Chopra sponsored and conducted an online Global Group Meditation for Peace with over 100,000 people participating from around the world. I was happy to be a part of this important event.

This was a tremendous service Dr. Chopra was delivering to the audience, for as he explained, meditation is the key to our connection with ourselves: Our Divine Selves. It is also our connection to the collective consciousness. Studies show that everything in the universe is connected and it is possible to unite people in heart-focused care and intention to facilitate the shift in global consciousness from instability and discord to balance, cooperation and enduring peace.

The Health Benefits of Daily Meditation are Many

The scientific evidence documenting the benefits of Transcendental Meditation, especially for PTSD, which includes child abuse, is conclusive. While there may always be skeptics, it is irrefutable that meditation delivers improvements on every level of life, from stress management to emotional, physical and spiritual balance.

Dr. Norman Rosenthal, senior research scientist at the National Institute of Health (NIH), has published his studies of over 300 experiments that prove the importance and benefits of meditation. This is in addition to the many thousands of published reports that have become available over the last 40 years that have come out of Maharishi University of Management, Harvard University and many others.

– Tom North is the author of True North – The Shocking Truth About “Yours, Mine and Ours” They appeared to be the blissful Beardsleys, the happily blended family-eight of Helen North’s, ten of Frank Beardsley’s, and two children from their union. A family so famous in America that Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda played the parents in the box office smash–Yours Mine and Ours. But they were anything from blissful; in fact they were the beaten and battered Beardsleys. That’s the real hidden story behind the spotlight. And Tom North, Helen’s second eldest son, is now revealing how he survived the ordeal of living with a horrifyingly abusive stepfather that drove him to depression and drugs, and deprived him of his self-worth-and a mother who protected the image of the “perfect” family at all costs. But True North is much more than an inspiring and powerful account of a man who rose to success against all odds. It’s a story of how Transcendental Meditation (TM) brought peace to Tom North and saved his life. It brings to light how effective meditation is as a means for healing trauma survivors and especially those who have endured any form of verbal, physical or sexual abuse. For more information, go to truenorthbytomnorth.com/

When I started my Healing journey in 2001, I found that most people hadn’t heard of Reiki, let alone experienced it. Nowadays, I find this has changed…most people I run across have at least heard of Reiki, many have even given it a try. Because anyone can learn Reiki, the number of practitioners in the world is growing by the day.

For the un-initiated, Reiki is an ancient Japanese form of energy healing. Reiki, loosely translated means Universal Life Force Energy. This life force or “source” energy is channeled into the practitioner through the top of the head (or crown chakra), circulates through the body, then comes out the hands into the client. Healing can be done on yourself or others. Reiki heals on a physical, spiritual and emotional level, so true and lasting healing can occur. Reiki is tremendous for relieving stress, anxieties and sleep disorders as well as many physical and emotional conditions.

Traditionally, Reiki is taught in three levels, Reiki 1, Reiki 2 and Reiki Master (although, some modern teachers have added some material and have split the Master course in two courses, in which case you may hear of level 3 and 3a as well). Much of the material I see in the world discusses Reiki 1, but today, I want to examine the second level of Reiki.

Level 2 of Reiki is a quantum leap from the first-degree training. In level 2, you are opened up to a greater ability to channel this amazing healing energy. In addition, three symbols are taught…The first, Cho Ku Rei, is primarily used for amplifying energy, this can be especially useful for an acute condition. For example, once upon a time, my dog had hip dysplasia. He had been hobbling around on three legs for a couple of months. I was new to Reiki and still experimenting. One day while working on him, I decided to try the power symbol. Each time I drew the symbol (with my hand) over his hip, he jerked his leg until it finally popped and from that moment foreward, he was a four-legged dog again!

The second symbol, Sei Hei Ki, is used for clearing and emotional healing. I once had a man on my table for just a brief session, maybe 15 minutes or so. My intuition told me to use this symbol extensively for his healing, so I used it over and over again. During the healing he came to tears. I asked him if he wanted me to stop the healing and he said no. Afterwards, he confided that he released a childhood rape during the healing.

The third level 2 symbol, Hon Sha Ze Shon Nen is used for distance healing. Here’s where it gets really exciting! A properly trained level 2 practitioner can send healing energy to anyone, anywhere in the world, past, present or future. Distance healing can also be sent to groups of people. I’ve been doing distance healing for years, and on occasion, when world circumstances would dictate, I would send distance healing to large groups of people (like the people affected by the Haiti earthquake). Although I had total faith that the healing I was sending was helping, I had no point of reference as to how effective my efforts actually were. A couple of years ago, I started a Facebook page and offered free healings monthly for all members of my page. I was amazed at the feedback I received. In the beginning, there were a few hundred people on the list, before long, I was sending healings to a few thousand…the list is currently more than 100,000 and growing daily and the feedback has been tremendous.

Even after years of practice, years of success stories, I continue to be amazed and fascinated by the powers of Reiki and the Universe at large. Somehow through our interconnectedness, through our oneness, a ‘healer’ with proper training and intent, can be a vessel so Spirit can deliver healing to a person you’ve never met or simultaneously to thousands, even millions of people in all corners of the earth. THAT is the power of Reiki!!

– Jeff Donovan has been a student of energy since 1993, began studying Reiki in 2001 and received his Reiki Master’s certification in 2003 and has been teaching ever since. In addition to Reiki, Jeff has studied DNA Healing, Reconnective Healing, Crystal Healing and more. He teaches Reiki in person, but primarily through his Home Study Course.

I went to class skeptical to say the least, yet hopeful that everything I had read and heard about Reiki was true. I did not have a spiritual background and certainly wasn’t ‘sensitive’ to energies (not in a way I was aware of anyway). I certainly didn’t believe I had any special gifts as a healer. How could I go to class for a single day and leave with healing abilities? The other students in class seemed to be having these amazing, mystical experiences, but I didn’t feel much of anything, except for one point where my body felt warmer than it should have, given the weather conditions.

At the end of class, when it was time to practice on each other, I still felt nothing, but the people I practiced on all raved about how hot my hands were. I still wasn’t convinced. I actually left class that day unsure if I was a healer, or if I had just been had! In the days and weeks that followed, I received feedback and confirmations that it was indeed working. I practiced on willing family members, friends and co-workers…all of whom would report back to me that my hands felt like they were on fire, that their headaches had disappeared and many even started requesting healings. One day I was thoroughly amazed when the energy turned on spontaneously when I touched somebody with a disfigured hand. I was a healer!

There are many very good healing modalities to choose from, and I’ve sampled several of them, but the thing I like about Reiki is that we use something called an attunement to instantly activate (or maybe I should say re-activate) your healing abilities. An attunement is nothing more than a ceremony performed by your Reiki Master using sacred symbols to align your energy field to the specific frequency of Reiki. Nearly all healing modalities use the same Universal Life Force Energy (or Source Energy, if you will), but each seems to have a unique frequency. A Reiki Master uses the attunement to ‘tune’ your frequency, much like we tuned our radios in the old days to find the correct channel, so to speak. Another metaphor I like to use is that it’s like flipping a light switch (except that we’re flipping your ‘healing switch’)…your healing abilities are literally activated from one minute to the next. That’s what makes Reiki unique and special…the attunement process ensures that anyone who has the desire can put their natural healing abilities to use.

Reiki certainly isn’t the only way to healing, but it is a very good way, and it will empower you to perform healing on yourself and others. Reiki heals on a physical, emotional and spiritual level so true and lasting healing can occur. Whatever modality you choose, if you have the slightest interest in healing, I implore you to find a class and give it a try because you’re already a healer, you just don’t know it yet. You just need a little guidance.

– Jeff Donovan has been a student of energy since 1993, began studying Reiki in 2001 and received his Reiki Master’s certification in 2003 and has been teaching ever since. In addition to Reiki, Jeff has studied DNA Healing, Reconnective Healing, Crystal Healing and more. He teaches Reiki in person, but primarily through his Home Study Course.

You Are A Healer! You might not know it yet, but it’s true. We all have an innate ability to heal. It is programmed into our DNA. Every single one of us is born with the gift of healing. Think about it, what is the first thing you do when you bang your head or your knee? You rub it…this is instinct, your instinct as a healer. Why do pregnant mothers walk around rubbing their bellies all day? Again, healing instinct. They’re directing healing to their unborn child without even knowing it. The problem is that healing is not reinforced for the children in most homes, so we essentially ‘forget’ how to heal.

“Kids, I have cancer.” Those are the words that propelled me onto my path as a healer. My father-in-law called my former wife and me to his house one Sunday morning and delivered the news he had lymphoma. We didn’t know much about lymphoma at the time except that a lot of people died from it, so she and I immediately went to the bookstore for more information. She went straight for the chemo and radiation section of the store, while I went right over to the health and nutrition section. I brought home a book on raw foods and liked what I read, so I bought a juicer later that week and started frequenting the local health food store, as I felt organic was the only way to go, considering what we were up against. During each visit, I’d stop and take home the free literature that was offered. One of the handouts was a monthly magazine, a calendar of events really, loaded with all kinds of classes, workshops and happenings for the spiritual community. It was here that I first heard of Reiki.

This Reiki thing sounded interesting to me and I wanted to help my family if I could, so I did some research. I visited a spiritual bookstore where I met the man who would become my Reiki Master. He recommended I read a book on Reiki, which I did, and it sounded absoulutely magical. From there I booked a session with him. He put me on a massage table in a dark healing room with candles, crystals, and some sort of geometric shape hanging from the ceiling. When the master placed his hands on me, they were incredibly hot. When he placed his hands over my face, I saw energy swirling in my mind’s eye. This was all very new to me…I wasn’t quite sure what took place that day, but I left with a knowing that something had happened (but still with a certain amount of skepticism). This was after all, about helping someone I cared about, so I booked myself into the next available class.

– Jeff Donovan has been a student of energy since 1993, began studying Reiki in 2001 and received his Reiki Master’s certification in 2003 and has been teaching ever since. In addition to Reiki, Jeff has studied DNA Healing, Reconnective Healing, Crystal Healing and more. He teaches Reiki in person, but primarily through his Home Study Course.

As a Reiki Master with a large following, people often come to me and ask me to heal their pain, heal their ailments, fix their finances, cure their addictions. I hate to tell you, but this isn’t how it works! A ‘healer’ doesn’t actually provide the healing, but the pathway for the healing to take place. It doesn’t matter what kind of healing you’re talking about, the concept is the same. If you break your arm and a doctor sets your injury, you aren’t healed are you? Of course you aren’t but he certainly did lay the foundation for the healing to occur. The same can be said about energy healers. The body is a perfect machine, designed to heal itself. It is sustained imbalances in the energy field, which causes illness and/or dis-ease. An energy healer is nothing more than a channel and/or facilitator to help bring the energy field back into balance so the body can heal itself. I don’t need to know what is wrong with my client to deliver an effective healing. I am, after all, not the healer. I am merely a vessel for healing.

Teaching people to get out of the way and drop their attachments to the outcome of a healing is for me, the hardest part of teaching Reiki. I can teach anyone how to do a healing, I cannot however, teach someone to drop their ego…that is a journey each person, healer or not, must take for themselves. And that is really what we are talking about when we are trying to direct a healing…Ego. We essentially are assuming we know better than God, Spirit, Source, the Universe or whatever you want to call it when we try to direct the healing.

When someone gets a headache and becomes stressed, they’ll often take an aspirin to treat the symptom. That is the world we live in, treat the symptom, but what they don’t understand is that the underlying cause (the stress that caused the headache) is still there. Similarly, if your client comes to you with a headache (and unbeknownst to you, their appendix was about to burst) and you try to direct the healing, focusing only on their headache you as the ‘healer’ would be getting in the way of what it is that they really need…at this point, you’re doing them a disservice.

When we are new to healing, we so badly want to see results that we become tied to the outcome.

When we are new to healing, we so badly want to see results that we become tied to the outcome. It’s ok to get excited when we see results. It is normal to want to see people heal through our efforts, but at some point, we must learn that we can’t heal everyone. There are many things that factor into a healing taking place. Besides the fact that we are not actually providing the healing, people must be willing to heal. They must co-create and participate in their healing as well. I hate to say it, but some people don’t really want to be healed. They might think they want to heal, they might say they do, but at a deeper level, it isn’t always true. Some people become so attached to their illness, so attached to their story and the attention they receive by telling their story, that the illness actually becomes their identity. I once did a healing for a woman with lupus. After the healing, she raved, telling me that she had spent more than $100,000 in treatments and never felt as good as she did in that moment. I encouraged her to learn Reiki so she could empower herself, take charge of her own health and feel that way every day…she never called me again. Why? I can’t say for sure because I’m not in her shoes, but the fact remains, she found something that worked and didn’t pursue it.

There is also a bigger issue at hand as to why some people do not heal. We do not know what anyone’s life path is. We don’t know when someone’s time is up and we don’t know what their life lessons are. Some are here to overcome and learn from their illness, some are here to learn by succumbing to their illness, while still others sacrifice themselves early so others can learn, or to clear a karmic debt. There is no apparent rhyme or reason why some die young while others live to be very old, why someone smokes two packs a day for fifty years and dies of natural causes while someone who never smoked dies of cancer…actually, there is a very good reason as to why, but few of us actually have the insight to make sense of it. But the point is, we don’t know anyone else’s destiny, so we must learn to detach ourselves from the results, and we certainly cannot play God and try to force a healing.

Experience has taught me we don’t need to know what someone’s issue is to deliver an effective healing. The best thing we can do as healers is to deliver the healing, get out of the way and let Spirit deliver the very best healing for each person at that moment in time. A healer after all, is just a vessel for the healing…a healer is not really THE healer, so drop the ego and do your best. That’s all anyone can ask.

– Jeff Donovan has been a student of energy since 1993, began studying Reiki in 2001 and received his Reiki Master’s certification in 2003 and has been teaching ever since. In addition to Reiki, Jeff has studied DNA Healing, Reconnective Healing, Crystal Healing and more. He teaches Reiki in person, but primarily through his Home Study Course. For more information: www.HomeStudyReiki.com

We’ve all experienced profound disappointment in our lives. There are some of us who use these disappointments to keep ourselves down, and to hang onto the belief that things never work out for us. We’ve held on to our stories of abandonment, rejection, betrayal and abuse, seeking to blame others for our pain. We unconsciously use these stories to stay small, constricted, and determined to never trust or open our hearts again.

While that is totally acceptable and even encouraged in the beginning stages of shock and disappointment, it is toxic, counter productive and a spiritual dead end to pull over and park there – especially for those with addictive/dependent tendencies.

It never serves us to do a bypass and pretend we’re so spiritual that we don’t experience resentment, fear and hurt. It’s healthy and absolutely necessary to be in the moment and acknowledge every feeling that arises when you’ve experienced disappointment and loss, no matter how it occurred or who’s at fault. Allowing yourself to feel the pain, rage, fear and sorrow, is, in fact, a very important part of your healing journey. If you skip this important step, true healing is impossible. However, it’s just as important to work through the pain and heal any unforgiveness or resentment that is operating in your awareness.

It has been proven over and over again, that resentment – which is the remembering, reliving and re-telling of painful events–is deadly for those with addictive or dependent tendencies. You simply cannot afford it. Resentment and blame blocks you from a connection with Spirit­-your spirit. When you are blocked from your spirit, you are blocked from emotional balance and well-being.

In this state, life becomes very hard and every moment is like trying to operate through a foggy mind of scattered-ness, anger and pain.

In this state, life becomes very hard and every moment is like trying to operate through a foggy mind of scattered-ness, anger and pain. And from that place, you will act on your addictions and dependencies again because they are the only things that seem to give you the illusion of temporary relief.

The Sufi poet Rumi reminds us that the way through the pain is to feel the pain. However, I have found that even in the midst of that pain, you can catch a glimmer of the fact that healing is possible, and that a blessing is right in the midst of your deepest despair. Just this awareness shows that you have made the first step in climbing your way out of what felt like your longest and darkest night.

How do I know this? Been there – done that – and so grateful that the Universe has never failed me. Even in your darkest hour, it will not fail you if you’re willing to go to whatever lengths to find the “value in the valley, the message in the mess and the testimony in the test.”

Here are the seven steps that I practice on a daily basis, but especially when I’m walking through the fire of divine refinement in my own life

1. Feel the pain – allow yourself to feel angry, resentful, fearful and hurt. Yell, scream and cry if that’s what’s coming through. It’s your inner child needing a voice for his/her frustration and disappointment. If you don’t give children an opportunity to express their feelings – they find another way to act out, right? Your inner child will find a way to act out, as well, if not given a loving space to feel its feelings.

2. Tell your story to people on a spiritual path who can be compassionate with your pain, but have the ability to take you past the story to your healing. No more Starbucks dates with your best friend to talk about what others did to you over, and over, and over again.

3. Forgive, forgive and forgive. If you have to do a forgiveness process 50 times a day, do it. It doesn’t condone inappropriate behavior on the part of others; it heals your core wounds, allows you to release others from blame and transforms your story from victim to victory. Forgiveness sets you free.

4. Make amends to the best of your ability for any part you’ve played in the situation. Yes, you can stop screaming – I know, I know. This is one of the most challenging steps there is, but it will take you where you want to go, my friend.

5. Meditation – sit in the silence – not to get your problems solved, but from a realization that in the mind of God, there are no problems and that the good you are seeking is already complete. Meditation isn’t about making anything happen; it’s about coming into alignment with the good that is already happening.

6. Affirmative prayer – Get clear about the reality and nature of God, and begin to pray from that recognition of your oneness with God. Affirming your freedom, peace of mind, divine and perfect order, harmony and inexhaustible love. Speak the word of truth for yourself, and have others support you in this way, as well.

7. Surround yourself with love and support from family and friends. Exercise, eat healthy (Krispy Creams might not be the best thing for you right now, so treat yourself in a healthy way), and have as much fun as possible.

The next thing you know, you’ll be on the other side, and the door that was shut has beenreplaced with something better than you have ever imagined.

– Ester Nicholson, renowned vocalist for Bette Midler and Rod Stewart, former addict, teacher, speaker and author uses her own astonishing story as the core of her powerful book: Soul Recovery – 12 Keys to Healing Addiction….and 12 Steps for the Rest of Us-A Path to Wholeness, Serenity and Success (Hay House/Agape Media). Soul Recovery, the process that Nicholson developed to heal herself of cocaine addiction – unifying the12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous with spiritual principles and practices – has guided thousands to their recovery and highest potential. The book includes a forward by Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith. For more information, please visit: www.soulrecovery.org

For over 36 years, I’ve been told there is no cure for alopecia areata, an autoimmune condition that causes a person to lose their hair. Like anyone with a chronic condition, I’ve always found that frustrating to hear.

I’ve had alopecia areata since I was 8 years old, so I know the many challenges one faces with a chronic condition, especially living in a world that judges us by our appearance.

Symptoms of alopecia areata can range from small patches on the scalp to complete hair loss all over the body. I’ve known the pain and heartache of having a needle injected into my scalp and to have the non-treated area grow back first. I’ve endured the many years of being told by doctors, “we’re getting closer to an answer and a cure.”

I’ve experienced the fear and the fragile hope of not wanting to lose all of my hair. Despite living most of my life in various stages of hair loss (and for the last 11 years, no hair at all), I’ve always believed that somehow I’d figure out what my own body needed to re-grow my hair and more importantly to heal my body.

Despite living most of my life in various stages of hair loss (and for the last 11 years, no hair at all), I’ve always believed that somehow I’d figure out what my own body needed to re-grow my hair and more importantly to heal my body.

Several years ago I took my passion for food and health to a new level and became a certified holistic health coach. I was taught by some of the best functional medicine doctors in the world. I began to see the powerful connection between the direct, and sometimes immediate, impact of food and the incredible ability of our bodies to heal themselves. This new found knowledge also began to shed some light on the impact my own diet and lifestyle has had on my health, including having alopecia areata, a digestive disorder (leaky gut syndrome) and hypothyroid.

It is very possible to heal, even life long conditions. I now know that to be true. For the last several years I’ve made many changes in my diet. I am beyond thrilled that after making those numerous changes – my hair is coming back (and I’ve healed my digestion and my thyroid is almost back to normal).

After 11 years of absolutely no hair growth, the hair on my head, my legs, my armpits and even my eyebrows are growing!

Having any autoimmune disease is a sign that our immune system is damaged and is in need of healing. While losing hair, thankfully, isn’t fatal, it is a sign of a much deeper issue going on inside our body.

This is true for not only alopecia areata but all other autoimmune diseases as well (MS, Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, celiac disease, and many others). The common trait found in all autoimmune diseases is internal inflammation, and food has the ability to support the body’s natural healing system.

We can reduce the inflammation and support our body functioning at its optimum level of health, simply by changing our diet. There are certain foods that are naturally anti-inflammatory and other foods that exacerbate the inflammation. Our body can use its natural healing abilities to begin repairing the damage when we remove the triggers and fill up with nutrient dense, whole natural foods.

In addition to nutrition and a nurturing lifestyle being vitally important in healing any autoimmune disease, our attitude and outlook on life is also a critical piece to healing our body. Minimizing negative self-talk, believing that healing is possible and filling ones life with positive thoughts and actions can provide a path of vitality, longevity and great health.

– Jodi Briden, CHHC, AADP, owner/founder of Your Wellness Partner, llc provides customized holistic wellness programs for individuals and groups. She is board certified as a Holistic Health Coach by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners and provides coaching, support, and guidance to clients to regain their health, lose weight, alleviate symptoms and heal chronic conditions, including alopecia areata & other autoimmune diseases, and live a life of vitality and wellness. Connect with Jodi on Twitter as well: @JodiBriden